HISTORY INTRODUCTION, is is okay?

Question

the essay question is: why did america get involved in vietnam in the 1950's?

heres my intro:

During the 1950’s Americas fear of communism had grown a great deal and this was the main reason why they got so involved in Vietnam. A communist state is a state where all citizens are equal and the state runs all industry. This frightened America because the thought of everyone having the same amount of money was ludicrous. The U.S was a place, which displayed the extremes; very rich people and very poor people. The rich people knew that if America became communist, then their money would be shared out amongst everyone.

do you think its okay? anything you think i should change?
thanks x

Answer 1

I don't know how old you are, so please don't be offended, however, to be brutally frank, it's rubbish.

On February 16th, 1945 Ho Chi Minh wrote a letter to President Truman asking for American assistance in gaining Vietnamese freedom. The letter closed with the remarks:

We ask what has been graciously granted to the Philippines. Like the Philippines our goal is full independence and full cooperation with the UNITED STATES. We will do our best to make this independence and cooperation profitable to the whole world.

I am dear Mr. PRESIDENT,

Respectfully Yours,

Ho Chi Minh

The letter was not declassified until 1972.

Due to the fact that Ho had tried every conceivable way to cooperate with both the French and Americans in gaining Vietnamese independence, and all of those efforts had been fruitless, Ho turned to the Communists for help.

The US generally took an approach of non-involvement in the issue of Vietnamese and French conflict, and in doing so supported French colonialism. America became less and less inclined to support Ho Chi Min due to his Communist affiliation yet at the same time American analysts could not draw any link between Ho Chi Minh and Moscow, writing that Ho Chi Minh did not seem to be following any directive from Moscow and that the policies of Ho Chi Minh did not correlate with Russian policy.

What followed between the region of South East Asia and Western powers was an unnecessary escalation of conflict. Western powers, including the United States, feared Communism and they also felt that non-Western people were not adequate to govern themselves and certainly not to be trusted with important resources and geographic regions. It was felt that it was important to keep economically and militarily strategic locations under Western authority. Had the United States or France given support to Ho Chi Minh and supported the right of Vietnam to self determination at any time up to this point, it is very likely that Vietnam would never have pursued Communism. The only reason that the Vietnamese did was because the Communists were the only ones who were supporting Vietnam's goal of independence.

In 1953 President Eisenhower proclaimed at the Governor's conference in Seattle:

Now let us assume that we lose Indochina. If Indochina goes, several things happen right away. The Malayan peninsula would be scarcely defensible- and tin and tungsten we so greatly value from that area would cease coming… All of that weakening position around there is very ominous for the United States, because finally if we lost all that, how would the free world hold the rich empire of Indonesia? So you see, somewhere along the line, this must be blocked. That is what the French are doing…

So, when the United States votes $400 million to help that war, we are not voting for a giveaway program. We are voting for the cheapest way that we can to prevent the occurrence of something that would be of the most terrible significance for the United States of America- our security, our power and ability to get certain things from the riches of South East Asia. (In other words Americans were trying to protect what they saw as their own National Interests).

This is one of my favorite quotes because it so eloquently illustrates the reality of the geopolitical situation. "…how would the 'free world' 'hold' the rich empire of Indonesia?" Indeed. This gets to the crux of not only the Vietnamese situation but the global situation, and obviously the Iraqi situation. The free world is free because it does "hold" control over the "other" parts of the world. The world that is not "free" is not free precisely because it is "held" by the "free world", and the freedom that is possible in the "free world" is only possible because of these holdings.

Answer 2

1st of all communism is not good for poor against the greedy rich. Communism failed in many countries because it was destructive. Treating productive people equally to nonproductive is not fair. It kills ambitions, and makes most people lazy.

Anyways, there was more than 1 reason for America to go to war in Vietnam. 1 was the French. They were there and they failed to defeat the communist fighters. America had to protect its credibility among its allies and go to help the French

Another reason why America feared the spread of communism because if it succeeded not much counties will be left to buy American products. Therefore, America had another economical/ pragmatic reason to fight.

Answer 3

I think you need to change a bit your introduction about communism. There are many definitions but like this one best:
Communism is a system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people.
Now, this means that the state comes before the individual and the rights of the individual are sacrificed for "the good of the society" which usually means (as we know from history) fear, repression and certainly no equality.

Answer 4

It is good, make sure you put in your essay that the american vietnam war was actually the second war, america joined in at the very end of the first war, these are referred to as the indochina wars,(first and second) France actually started the vietnam conflict because of a rebellion against the french ruleing government in vietnam.

Answer 5

Seems fine to me.
You could add that the US was terrified of the 'domino effect'. If Vietnam fell to Communism then other states such as Laos, Cambodia, Thailand etc would follow and eventually spread across Asia.

Answer 6

Yes, I think it's fine. This is optional, but maybe you could eliminate the first part of the sentence after "No" since it's already a long sentence. Take out "Canadian immigration policies have not always been fair" and join "No" and the rest of the next sentence with a comma then "because." Like this: No, because of the unreasonable distinct and discriminatory policies targeted specifically at Asian groups, the denial of immigration and the massive amount of deportations to ethnic groups who “caused trouble,” and the policies that denied several suffering refugees from entering Canada. Also, make sure you cite the information you got in your paragraph.

Answer 7

It is good, but you have to apply the American economic capitalist ethic and take it overseas in the post-war global political arena with the other players, and America's perception of the other players. To be straight to the point - your Introduction needs more of a Historical and Political context ...

p.s. "The U.S. IS a place..not was....use the present tense.

Answer 8

You miss the mark with the theory of rich Americans afraid of their money being taken away....

It leans more toward communism removing personal freedoms that allow individuals to invest their money and do business as they please to make more money... those freedoms would be limited under communist rule.



g-day!

Answer 9

That seems good!